I don’t want anyone to think that I am complaining all the time. However, what stands out to me usually has some type of culture shock value. The more I am here the more I realize how American I am.
For instance, a Japanese person will complain about the heat while wearing long gloves that go up to their elbows. But they sacrifice temperature to make sure they don’t tan. So different from America where most people try to take advantage of any sun available. I remember this summer I tried so hard to get tan (with little result), but in Japan women want to be paler. Women in particular apply bleach creams and wear sleeves in order to look sexier for member of the opposite sex. From my point of view I think it is crazy because I associate pale with sickly, but they associate pale with beauty. Well I guess many Japanese men will find me sexy because I can’t get tan even if I want to. One point on the Japanese attractiveness scale for Adriene, but many points deducted for not being petite. Don’t worry I am not calling myself “fat” but honestly even the bigger Japanese girls are smaller than me.
So about this week. Well, how should I put it…I feel like a blind person being led by a group of mutes who point to things but forget about my condition: I can’t see the direction they’re pointing. I don’t understand what happens most of the time and no one really takes time to fill me in. One mute, not hard to guess, is Toki-san, and the others are my colleagues at school. Toki-san (god bless his soul) still hasn’t been able to fully inform me about events. Either he forgets or assumes I know, but none-the-less there’s lots of miscommunication. For instance, he failed to tell me about a meeting I had yesterday. So, I had made plans to take a day of summer vacation and scuba dive. But, he called on Wednesday to “remind” me. Well Nakamura-sensei tried to help and asked to cancel it, but apparently it couldn’t be. Something something about my elementary school teachers? They would come to my school? And Nakamura sensei was also surprised I didn’t know and thought that she had told me. Furthermore they tried to blame it on me by saying that it said “clearly” (in complicated Japanese characters) on a sheet that I had an appointment. How was I supposed to figure that out? Toki-san, seriously, inform me! In the end Nakamura sensei apologized and told me that I should have been told in advance. So I rescheduled with Nice Buddy for next week, but I still felt horrible about cancelling so suddenly.
Yesterday when I expected to be greeted by the principles at my school, a BOE (board of education) member came to pick me up. Huh, what? And when I got to the BOE Kelly, Shinju, and Robin were all waiting. They had the same questions as me, “What are we doing here? Where are the principles?” Soon we found out it was literally a five minute meeting. The “meeting” of the elementary school principles ended being an introduction in front of all the principles of not just my school but all of the others as well. So no meeting. It looked like a UN conference the way the tables were set up in this gym. Individual tables were lined up in three columns and each table had a name plate of the school. Arikawa elementary school principle happened to be seated right in front of where I was told to stand. We all stood in a line (the four of us ALTs) and each stepped forward to give our introduction. My day of scuba cancelled for, “Hello, My name is Adriene, I like sports, I studied linguistics in college, thank you very much.” But, Japanese are very much into ceremony so it makes sense why this was so important. To me, it seemed unnecessary, but I have a lot to learn about the importance of self introductions. I have given but each time Toki-san reads our information first so why do we have to repeat everything?
The same thing happened when meeting the board of education and the mayor. The BOE meetings basically reflected the principle meeting (but the BOE meeting happened first). Like I described earlier, when all of us ALTs gather we couldn’t predict what to expect. Toki-san never told us to prepare a self-introduction. Metaphorically, my blindness prevented the sight to see his mute gesturing. Toki-san might have told me beforehand, but when he gets nervous he starts speaking in really fast Japanese. Fast complicated Japanese that I just don’t understand yet. Funny enough he even does this to Kelly even though he knows that she can’t understand any Japanese.
I am going to title my unknowing moments as WGO’s (what’s going on?). Well another WGO just happened sitting at my desk writing my blog. All of a sudden students flooded in an all the teachers told me to clean. Cleaning time! What? And this morning when I walked into another WGO when all the teachers rushed out of the teacher’s lounge and they told me there was a school assembly. Why can’t I get a schedule? I am so confused. Yesterday I was getting ready to leave when all the teachers walked outside and told me it was time to pick grass on the brick driveway in front of the school. WGO? Mind you, I had dressed nicely that day in preparation of my meeting the principles and so my outfit was hardly suited for gardening. They gave me a bent thick wire and set me to work using this wire to dig weeds out of the cracks. Any heard of weed killer? I guess not. During this weed hooking I almost got bit by a mukade! Dangerous and poisonous, mukades are the Japanese centipede.
No gloves and without regard, I reached for a small weed. As soon as I touched a leaf a mukade about four inches long furiously scurried out from its hiding place! I screamed, and everyone of course turned towards me. I yelled, “MUKADE!” And several teachers ran over asking if I had been bitten. Luckily I escaped the poisonous bite. My brave JTE Takase sensei crushed the mukade with her foot. But that thing wouldn’t die. She had to step on it at least five times with powerful blows before it stopped moving. My life had flashed before my eyes and my heart started beating out of my chest. I wish I could explain how much I fear the mukade. Even though that was the first time I saw one, I don’t want to be bitten. I live in fear of them and as such I shake out my shoes every morning and I shake out my sheets. Better safe than sorry. But, I had not expected the mukade to come charging from under a small weed. I have to be even more careful than I thought. I live in fear.
Meeting the mayor was formal, but relaxed. He had us sit down, gave us delicious tea and presents. Cute little whale key chains and his card. Each card had a different place on the island with Catholic significance. I think he told us that he would take us by boat to a place called Saint Maria cave on the island. Missing my opportunity to ask about where I can go to church, I hope he does take us by boat so I can ask him again.
One more WGO. Preface- toki-san told us all to dress formally for the day’s events. After the two meetings on Wednesday we had our enkai (party). Usually this takes place at a restaurant, so we didn’t feel the need to change out of our clothes. Toki drove us to a place I am calling nowhere. At this nowhere we got out of the car and he handed us things from his trunk. OH, a BBQ! Finally we understood why we drove away from civilization, our enkai was a BBQ not at a restaurant. So at nowhere we climbed a steep staircase and ended up on the most beautiful hill and the perfect time of day when the sun cast a beautiful warm glow over everything. Dragon flies darted around our heads and we could see all the way to the neighboring island Ojika. Beautiful, but wrong. Are you surprised that Toki-san couldn’t get us to the right place? Soon he herded us back down the mountain and this time made it to the BBQ area.
Soon all the other BOE people showed up. And they all wore casual clothes and jeans. It was a BBQ of course. Oh Toki-san. Outside in formal wear was not my idea of a good time. I didn’t want to ruin my pants! Well I guess we couldn’t have changed if we wanted to because Toki-san didn’t tell us to bring an extra change of clothes.
My life continues to be one big WGO right now, constantly. Maybe I’ll catch on, but I feel like things will continually happen that I don’t expect. Either people don’t bother explaining because they feel like we won’t understand or they assume that our American social pragmatics match Japanese ones.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
obon festival
All of Japan celebrates Obon because the festival has deep Buddhism roots now engrained in mainstream culture. During Obon people visit graves and remember their ancestors by lighting incense, pouring sake on the graves (this is because the people liked sake in life), and giving freshly cut flowers. Most places in Japan make Obon a subdued and personal event including only members of the family. But Nagasaki does things a bit bigger. Obon happens to be the biggest festival in Nagasaki only second to New Years. People parade huge boat looking carts lit with lanterns through the street. Each boat carries the ancestors and recently passed family members and friends. Communities spend months preparing their floats to parade through the streets of Nagasaki. And each time the boat stops, a handful of very loud fireworks are dropped onto the ground. These fireworks are the type that make loud noises but not much light. Believe me, the noise rose to such unbearable decibels that we all had to wear earplugs. I’ll go into more detail about this later.
Careful planning ensured that I could make it to Nagasaki last weekend. And, I just barely made it. I had to go the long way through Sasebo. I chose this route because the Sasebo ferry is walk distance from my house, and because it is one of the cheaper routes to Nagasaki. On the downside, this route takes forever, but on the upside I get to see the beautiful country side. And it was a perfect day for taking the long scenic route. Finally the sun had come out – it has been pretty cloudy most of the time here – and made all the colors intense and vibrant. Reminding me of my high school Coaster days, I loved seeing the sea from my window of the train. It was a good relaxing break before all of the excitement in Nagasaki.
Before I get ahead of myself I should describe the ferry. There were no seats. When I walked inside there were only four sections of carpet elevated from the main aisle. Since I am in Japan, everyone took off their shoes before stepping up onto the carpet. I should have foreseen this event – removal of the shoes – but alas I did not. I had sprinkled a hefty amount of Gold Bond into my shoes in preparation of the hot humid Nagasaki weather. At first I had just sprinkled it in the shoes, but upon further consideration I felt that a bigger more ample amount would prevent foot odor. And those of you who have used Gold Bond know that it is very fine white powder, and in this instance completely covered my feet. Although a great idea to prevent foot odor, it wasn’t such a great idea when confronted with taking off my shoes. I nearly had a panic attack when I saw I had to remove my shoes because they would leave a white powder trail. So I devised a plan. First I pulled out the Japanese hand towel I carry with me at all times and then I stepped out of my shoes but stayed standing on them. My next move was pretty brilliant. I fumbled with my purse and “accidently” dropped it on my feet – oopsies - giving me enough time to quickly whisk away my powered feet. Crisis averted. I managed to avoid a foot power trail onto the burgundy carpeting.
Oddly reminiscent of pictures I have seen of immigrants coming to America, everyone picked a spot on the floor, picked up a complementary blanket and either went to sleep or watched TV. So I followed suit and wedged my way between two Japanese teenagers that had already fallen asleep (we had literally just bored the ferry). Japanese people can fall asleep anywhere! Last time I came to Japan I had the problem of people falling asleep on me riding home on the train. I would have to elbow them, or their head would be resting in my lap. Surprisingly they always woke up right before their stop. Japanese magic. But, to go back to the ferry. The teenagers were asleep next to me and I had barely enough room to spread out my feet while leaning on the wall. Luckily I got a wall spot, however, my feet dangerously were situated next to the head of a mother and son sleeping in the middle section of the carpet. The mother kept looking up at my feet, and I expected that something was wrong with them. So, I checked my feet: fine. Even though there were no traces of white powder she kept looking uncomfortable. So I have no idea if my feet were ugly, if I was in her space, or if it was the fact that I am a foreigner. None the less this made me really uncomfortable. Lesson learned from my ferry experience: don’t put on gold bond, wear socks instead, and be the first one to board the ferry so you can claim territory instead of invading other people’s. Besides my turmoil, we sailed smoothly to Sasebo.
The plan in Nagasaki was to meet up with ALTs from the Nagasaki prefecture and enjoy the Obon festival. Thankfully, Emily – a friend I met at orientation – so kindly allowed me to stay at her place for the night. She boarded so many ALTs for the weekend at her place that we all joked that she was running a mini hostel. Although Emily technically resides in Nagasaki city, her place is more of a suburb. Let me tell you, her area is nice and is without a doubt more affluent than my area in Arikawa. Drum roll…she even has a dryer in her apartment. Surprising, I know, that I am worked up about a dryer, but hardly anyone own a dryer in Japan. Basically, owning a dryer is unheard of, and Emily is the only ALT I know that owns one. Lucky! On the bright side, I am saving electricity. From what I understand her predecessor had a Japanese girl friend who elevated the apartment to a Japanese cleanliness and organizational standard. So, Emily doesn’t really have to do much in terms of cleaning or re-decorating, except for the shower. The shower works and is nice, but it is odd. Cranking a handle is the only way to generate heat. I am not sure how this works, but I do know that it is loud and more complicated that just turning on the faucet. Some areas in Japanese technology are first rate…while other sectors of technology seem to fail to catch up (air-conditioners!).
In total, five guests stayed at her apartment for the two nights I stayed there. It was crowded, but I got to sleep on a futon, and can fall asleep almost anywhere (like a Japanese person) so I was fine.
Walking to school today (10 mins) was so much hotter than usually. All I wanted was to get into the air conditioned teachers room, collapse and complain to other teachers how hot it is. Even though it is hot every day, without fail everyone says, “Atsui ne?,” meaning, “It’s hot right?” To which everyone responds, “hai sugoku atsui yo,” roughly translated, “Yeah, so freakin hot.” Today I expected the same circumstances because usually at school when I walk in through the door I only see maybe five – at most – teachers sitting in their desks. But today EVERYONE was there. Strange. I walked into a meeting, of which I had not been informed of that had clearly been going on since before my start time. I guess they figure I lack the language skills to understand the meeting. True, however, being employed by the school I want to know when teacher events are taking place. My goal is to slowly inform the teachers that I want to be included in these meetings. Nakamura sensei gave me a piece of paper and explained that there are meetings all day, and that I should just use my computer.
Back to Nagasaki. I bought a yukatta which looks like a kimono, but instead of silk it is made of cotton and commonly worn at festivals. Picking one out proved to be difficult! The patterns and the colors are important because the way I see it, a yukatta is a reflection of your personality. Because my yukatta has bright colors and a bold pattern I would say that my yukatta reflects my outgoing and fun nature. Without realizing it, I picked a very islandy looking one and I heightened that aspect by wearing a flower right above one of my ears. So cute, right?
I bought a yukatta – it’s always good to have one living in Japan – mostly because all the ALTs planned to wear yukatta the night of the 15th (the big day of the festival). Traditionally Japanese wear yukatta for festivals, and so we felt that Obon festival gave us an excuse to wear our yukatta and fit in at the festival.
Yeah, we did look cute but we were far from fitting in. Where were the yukattas? As soon as we boarded the bus we realized that no one wore a yukatta. At first I thought that people during Obon – a somber event – don’t wear yukatta. We later learned many people didn’t wear yukatta because they were afraid that it would rain and ruin the cloth. But, we didn’t learn this until the next day. Can’t you imagine how we looked at Obon? Not only were there the six ALTs staying at Emily’s house, but three more girls met up with us so that we could all help each other put on the yukatta. In total, we had a group composed of all foreigners: eight girls all in bright colored yukattas and one guy in a traditional jinbe.
We stood out like a sore thumb. Some of the people couldn’t stop staring, and people started taking pictures of us. Immediately I thought since Obon festival remembers departed souls, we somehow dressed inappropriately. And I felt like I had worn a bright yellow sun dress to a funeral. Like, a good gainjin I decided to roll with the punches and play into the stupid foreigner card. Although people usually wear yukatta at Bon, as I have mentioned the weather played into the decision for most people not to wear a yukatta on this day. Japanese pay very close attention to weather related events and seasons. For instance, if it is winter everyone wears a jacket; temperature is irrelevant to the clothing choice. But, in the case of rain – if there is a slight chance – people don’t want to ruin yukatta so no one wears one. Essentially we stood out because we – like unknowing gaijin – decided to wear our yukatta anyway. What I am trying to explain is that if it had been clear weather we wouldn’t have stood out, but since there was a chance of rain all the Japanese people couldn’t believe we risked wearing our yukatta. But, I am glad we did because I had so much fun!
The boat floats were everywhere. Even throughout the day people began walking their boats through every part of the city on the way toward the downtown area. You couldn’t miss the boats at any time during the day. At every stop people lit the firework, altering everyone in the surrounding area of their presence. During my visit to the Peace Park (the hypocenter of the A-bomb) I couldn’t miss the loud popping noises in the distance, and I caught my first glimpse of the group of matching men in jinbe surrounding the float. Along with the fireworks kids led the procession by banging on a gong. Everyone had a role in each group. A couple people lit fireworks in front and behind the float, some people banged on the gong, and depending on the size of the float an equal amount of men (usually men) lined either side of the float and push the cart forward.
Before I get to ahead of myself, I should talk a bit about the Peace Park and museum. As an American, I feel a certain draw to understand the history (even if it is dark) between Japan and America. Even though I feel a certain personal magnetic pull to visit both A-bomb sites, at the same time I feel a cultural push and expectation to visit the hypocenter of the bomb. I can’t explain my reasoning for this, but I know that other Americans feel the same way. If I ignored the A-bomb site and museum, it is almost like scoffing at and ignoring the horrible events that took place on August 9th at 11:02 A.M. in Nagasaki. When I visit (especially during Obon) I feel like I am giving my respects to all of the lives lost as a result of the A-bomb (around 130,000 people died). But maybe more importantly, by visiting I want to show that I am an advocate of peace, and that I am not afraid to acknowledge the destruction and learn from the personal experiences of bomb survivors.
Unlike Hiroshima, Nagasaki attempted an objective approach. Of course it is almost impossible to achieve this when your city is only one of two in the world destroyed by an atomic bomb, but they were objective considering their fate. Hiroshima tried to question why the bomb had to be dropped on a city, why there had to be a second bomb dropped, why did they drop it against the scientists of the Manhattan project’s wills, why did they choose these specific targets, why weren’t the cities warned prior to the drops,etc. Interestingly Hiroshima made a good point that the choice had personal ties. For instance, one general refused to have a bomb dropped on Kyoto since he spent his honeymoon there. But, Nagasaki left out information like this because arguably that story might not be as concretely true as Hiroshima insists. Instead, Nagasaki focused on personal stories and events, and talked specifically about the stages of the bomb. That is, how hot temperatures rose at certain distances from the hypocenter and how powerful the blast was. Many bottles, roof tiles, and trees showed the bubbling caused by the intense heat. Many stories and personal items filled the museum. Some sections informed museum goers about stages of radiation and showed graphic pictures of skin burned off and keloid scars.
All the pictures of the burn victims almost brought me to tears. Even now when thinking about how many people suffered, upsets me. Perhaps the item that stood out to me the most was a lunch box of a school girl. Displayed under the picture of the girl, this lunch box still had all of the food items intact, but was completely charred. Essentially the lunch box had been preserved like a time capsule and even individual grains of rice could still be seen. Right now I am having a hard time describing how it affected me so deeply. Maybe because I started to think about how unknowingly this school girl sat at her desk thinking about her regular day and how soon (around 11 o’clock) she would finally get some lunch. Of course made this up in my head, but I started thinking about how so many people had no idea what would happen, and how instantaneously some many lives disintegrated. They hadn’t been able to find this girl; the only thing that remained of her on that day was her lunch box with her name engraved on the bottom. It was a piece of her on that day almost perfectly preserved, and a memory that her life had been unknowingly swept away. I hope that explains my jumble of thoughts. I find it so difficult to describe, and so I encourage anyone who gets a chance to visit the Nagasaki A-bomb museum to truly make an effort to understand that peace is necessary so that no A-bomb will be dropped again.
On a lighter note, Obon exceeded my expectations. The atmosphere and excitement truly affected everyone around the festival. All the roads downtown had been shut down for the parade of boats, and in some spots the only lights came from the lanterns on the boats themselves. Tons of people lined the street on both sides and tons of fireworks exploded in the middle of the street. I have never seen as much litter in Japan until the night of Obon. Since people discarded firework box where ever the street was barely visible under the mounds of trash. So strange to see in Japan, but it made it all the more exciting and different than any other Japan experience I have had. Instead of me explaining forever what the floats looked like, look at the pictures for youself (the link is on an older post). Experiencing Obon in Nagasaki was worth it, even though it was expensive!
Planning my trip back didn’t go too well. I had just enough, again, to make it back to Shinkamigoto on the fast boat. Bad decision. Unfortunately the fast boat is not only expensive, but pretty far from my house. I had the idea that I could catch a bus from Taonora (where the boat lands in Shinkamigoto) regardless of the fact that I didn’t look up the schedule. Also, I wore jeans that day – really bad decision in this heat – because someone told me I would need jeans to protect myself from the ground fireworks at Obon. To my disadvantage on this exceptionally hot day, they were my only set of clean clothes. Since I thought I could take a bus back home, wearing jeans didn’t seem too stupid. But, it was. Let me tell you, skinny jeans in humid heat makes for a miserable 1.5 mile hike while carrying duffle bags.
Upon arriving in Taonora I was informed that the last bus of the day just departed ten minutes ago. What to do? Not having enough money for a taxi, I opted to walk in my jeans on this hot hot day all the way back to my house. Carrying my bags I set off in the direction – I hoped – was Arikawa. Thankfully it was, but it took me a good hour and ten minutes to finally reach my destination! And, another problem I faced was figuring out how to get to Nice Buddy later that night for a BBQ they invited me to. I didn’t have anyone’s number from Nice Buddy because I had just gotten my phone on Thursday. But fate was on my side! Thankfully after all my misfortunes of the day, I ran into Natsun – one of the owner of Nice Buddy – on the walk home. If I hadn’t I think I would have collapsed on my bed and not been able to make it all the way to the BBQ. After exchanging numbers and explaining my situation she offered a ride later in the day. Halleluiah!
I won’t go into details of the BBQ, but instead focus on what’s interesting. I ate sheep, goat, sea snail, and beef. Funny, but true, goat kinda tastes like how they smell. Taste wise, I haven’t made up my mind whether I actually liked it or not. And raw goat meat tasted better than when cooked. At first I thought they were playing a trick on my and trying to get me to eat a raw meat that I shouldn’t. So I had them eat the raw goat first. They did, so I did. And it was delicious! Raw goat is tasty, but raw sea snail not so much. I happened to eat some raw sea snail sashimi in Nagasaki. It looked like the multicolored gizzards of a chicken with boogers all over it, and I think it tasted pretty much how it looked. And it was so incredibly slimly I had a hard time handling it with my chopstick. Instead of gracefully placing it in my mouth, I had to scoop it in. In my mouth the booger sack burst open and a flood of extremely mushy cream of wheat textured goo poured out. Delicious. Joking, because seriously it was nasty. Cooked sea snail actually tastes good, but it is just one of those things that shouldn’t be eaten raw. So adding goat and sea snail onto the list of sashimi, I have also added cooked sheep (I have eaten lamb, but full grown is different) onto my new foods list. I really like.
*Hahaha, there is a break between meetings and people started taking about how hot it is, and when the heat will end.
Sheep in Japanese is pronounced jingesukan, which sounds an awful lot like Ghengis Khan the Mongol conqueror. So they kept talking about how we were going to eat Ghengis Khan, and I didn’t understand. And I kept asking why they said we were eating a Mongol. It took forever to explain what I meant, but towards the end of the night everyone started calling the sheep monguru-jin (Mongolian person).
I really like the whole Nice Buddy family! Techan and Natsun have three kids: two girls and one boy. And the girls are interested in talking to Robin and me. I think they want to learn English from us, and I figure that my free English lessons are in exchange for the extra benefits (like dinner) that Nice Buddy has given me. The little boy (8 years old) keeps showing me all the bugs he catches. Here in Japan little boys catch a certain type of beetle. The more you have the cooler you are. Techan keeps calling his soon “hero” because he has so many bugs, and explained that he is a really manly cool little boy for catching these beetles (they are not dangerous) and so they call him a hero for it. I think that they look really nasty, but I am not a huge fan of bugs in general. But, every time I go to Nice Buddy the little boy shows me his beetle collection because he keeps them in a tank like pets. Last time he showed me almost all of the bugs in one of the terrariums had died, and he didn’t seem too upset. I told him all had died, but he assured me that there were live ones at the bottom of the sod. So he dug through the layers of dead beetles and moist sod to prove that in fact live beetles did escape death. Gross.
After my dive on Monday night, Nastun served me dinner at Nice Buddy. I sat there for a good while trying to explain the pronunciation difference between frog and flag. When it comes to pronunciation my linguistic training comes as an advantage.
*Best time ever at work. I went out of the teacher’s lounge to go to the bathroom, and what do I hear but Thriller playing the background. So I went over to investigate and almost all of the third year students were practicing the dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller video! So cool to see all of the students doing this dance. They told me that they are practicing for sports day where they are all going to perform the dance together. Some taught me some of the moves, and I started to join in and practice with them. So much fun!
I’ll write about meeting the mayor tomorrow. I have already written so much!
Careful planning ensured that I could make it to Nagasaki last weekend. And, I just barely made it. I had to go the long way through Sasebo. I chose this route because the Sasebo ferry is walk distance from my house, and because it is one of the cheaper routes to Nagasaki. On the downside, this route takes forever, but on the upside I get to see the beautiful country side. And it was a perfect day for taking the long scenic route. Finally the sun had come out – it has been pretty cloudy most of the time here – and made all the colors intense and vibrant. Reminding me of my high school Coaster days, I loved seeing the sea from my window of the train. It was a good relaxing break before all of the excitement in Nagasaki.
Before I get ahead of myself I should describe the ferry. There were no seats. When I walked inside there were only four sections of carpet elevated from the main aisle. Since I am in Japan, everyone took off their shoes before stepping up onto the carpet. I should have foreseen this event – removal of the shoes – but alas I did not. I had sprinkled a hefty amount of Gold Bond into my shoes in preparation of the hot humid Nagasaki weather. At first I had just sprinkled it in the shoes, but upon further consideration I felt that a bigger more ample amount would prevent foot odor. And those of you who have used Gold Bond know that it is very fine white powder, and in this instance completely covered my feet. Although a great idea to prevent foot odor, it wasn’t such a great idea when confronted with taking off my shoes. I nearly had a panic attack when I saw I had to remove my shoes because they would leave a white powder trail. So I devised a plan. First I pulled out the Japanese hand towel I carry with me at all times and then I stepped out of my shoes but stayed standing on them. My next move was pretty brilliant. I fumbled with my purse and “accidently” dropped it on my feet – oopsies - giving me enough time to quickly whisk away my powered feet. Crisis averted. I managed to avoid a foot power trail onto the burgundy carpeting.
Oddly reminiscent of pictures I have seen of immigrants coming to America, everyone picked a spot on the floor, picked up a complementary blanket and either went to sleep or watched TV. So I followed suit and wedged my way between two Japanese teenagers that had already fallen asleep (we had literally just bored the ferry). Japanese people can fall asleep anywhere! Last time I came to Japan I had the problem of people falling asleep on me riding home on the train. I would have to elbow them, or their head would be resting in my lap. Surprisingly they always woke up right before their stop. Japanese magic. But, to go back to the ferry. The teenagers were asleep next to me and I had barely enough room to spread out my feet while leaning on the wall. Luckily I got a wall spot, however, my feet dangerously were situated next to the head of a mother and son sleeping in the middle section of the carpet. The mother kept looking up at my feet, and I expected that something was wrong with them. So, I checked my feet: fine. Even though there were no traces of white powder she kept looking uncomfortable. So I have no idea if my feet were ugly, if I was in her space, or if it was the fact that I am a foreigner. None the less this made me really uncomfortable. Lesson learned from my ferry experience: don’t put on gold bond, wear socks instead, and be the first one to board the ferry so you can claim territory instead of invading other people’s. Besides my turmoil, we sailed smoothly to Sasebo.
The plan in Nagasaki was to meet up with ALTs from the Nagasaki prefecture and enjoy the Obon festival. Thankfully, Emily – a friend I met at orientation – so kindly allowed me to stay at her place for the night. She boarded so many ALTs for the weekend at her place that we all joked that she was running a mini hostel. Although Emily technically resides in Nagasaki city, her place is more of a suburb. Let me tell you, her area is nice and is without a doubt more affluent than my area in Arikawa. Drum roll…she even has a dryer in her apartment. Surprising, I know, that I am worked up about a dryer, but hardly anyone own a dryer in Japan. Basically, owning a dryer is unheard of, and Emily is the only ALT I know that owns one. Lucky! On the bright side, I am saving electricity. From what I understand her predecessor had a Japanese girl friend who elevated the apartment to a Japanese cleanliness and organizational standard. So, Emily doesn’t really have to do much in terms of cleaning or re-decorating, except for the shower. The shower works and is nice, but it is odd. Cranking a handle is the only way to generate heat. I am not sure how this works, but I do know that it is loud and more complicated that just turning on the faucet. Some areas in Japanese technology are first rate…while other sectors of technology seem to fail to catch up (air-conditioners!).
In total, five guests stayed at her apartment for the two nights I stayed there. It was crowded, but I got to sleep on a futon, and can fall asleep almost anywhere (like a Japanese person) so I was fine.
Walking to school today (10 mins) was so much hotter than usually. All I wanted was to get into the air conditioned teachers room, collapse and complain to other teachers how hot it is. Even though it is hot every day, without fail everyone says, “Atsui ne?,” meaning, “It’s hot right?” To which everyone responds, “hai sugoku atsui yo,” roughly translated, “Yeah, so freakin hot.” Today I expected the same circumstances because usually at school when I walk in through the door I only see maybe five – at most – teachers sitting in their desks. But today EVERYONE was there. Strange. I walked into a meeting, of which I had not been informed of that had clearly been going on since before my start time. I guess they figure I lack the language skills to understand the meeting. True, however, being employed by the school I want to know when teacher events are taking place. My goal is to slowly inform the teachers that I want to be included in these meetings. Nakamura sensei gave me a piece of paper and explained that there are meetings all day, and that I should just use my computer.
Back to Nagasaki. I bought a yukatta which looks like a kimono, but instead of silk it is made of cotton and commonly worn at festivals. Picking one out proved to be difficult! The patterns and the colors are important because the way I see it, a yukatta is a reflection of your personality. Because my yukatta has bright colors and a bold pattern I would say that my yukatta reflects my outgoing and fun nature. Without realizing it, I picked a very islandy looking one and I heightened that aspect by wearing a flower right above one of my ears. So cute, right?
I bought a yukatta – it’s always good to have one living in Japan – mostly because all the ALTs planned to wear yukatta the night of the 15th (the big day of the festival). Traditionally Japanese wear yukatta for festivals, and so we felt that Obon festival gave us an excuse to wear our yukatta and fit in at the festival.
Yeah, we did look cute but we were far from fitting in. Where were the yukattas? As soon as we boarded the bus we realized that no one wore a yukatta. At first I thought that people during Obon – a somber event – don’t wear yukatta. We later learned many people didn’t wear yukatta because they were afraid that it would rain and ruin the cloth. But, we didn’t learn this until the next day. Can’t you imagine how we looked at Obon? Not only were there the six ALTs staying at Emily’s house, but three more girls met up with us so that we could all help each other put on the yukatta. In total, we had a group composed of all foreigners: eight girls all in bright colored yukattas and one guy in a traditional jinbe.
We stood out like a sore thumb. Some of the people couldn’t stop staring, and people started taking pictures of us. Immediately I thought since Obon festival remembers departed souls, we somehow dressed inappropriately. And I felt like I had worn a bright yellow sun dress to a funeral. Like, a good gainjin I decided to roll with the punches and play into the stupid foreigner card. Although people usually wear yukatta at Bon, as I have mentioned the weather played into the decision for most people not to wear a yukatta on this day. Japanese pay very close attention to weather related events and seasons. For instance, if it is winter everyone wears a jacket; temperature is irrelevant to the clothing choice. But, in the case of rain – if there is a slight chance – people don’t want to ruin yukatta so no one wears one. Essentially we stood out because we – like unknowing gaijin – decided to wear our yukatta anyway. What I am trying to explain is that if it had been clear weather we wouldn’t have stood out, but since there was a chance of rain all the Japanese people couldn’t believe we risked wearing our yukatta. But, I am glad we did because I had so much fun!
The boat floats were everywhere. Even throughout the day people began walking their boats through every part of the city on the way toward the downtown area. You couldn’t miss the boats at any time during the day. At every stop people lit the firework, altering everyone in the surrounding area of their presence. During my visit to the Peace Park (the hypocenter of the A-bomb) I couldn’t miss the loud popping noises in the distance, and I caught my first glimpse of the group of matching men in jinbe surrounding the float. Along with the fireworks kids led the procession by banging on a gong. Everyone had a role in each group. A couple people lit fireworks in front and behind the float, some people banged on the gong, and depending on the size of the float an equal amount of men (usually men) lined either side of the float and push the cart forward.
Before I get to ahead of myself, I should talk a bit about the Peace Park and museum. As an American, I feel a certain draw to understand the history (even if it is dark) between Japan and America. Even though I feel a certain personal magnetic pull to visit both A-bomb sites, at the same time I feel a cultural push and expectation to visit the hypocenter of the bomb. I can’t explain my reasoning for this, but I know that other Americans feel the same way. If I ignored the A-bomb site and museum, it is almost like scoffing at and ignoring the horrible events that took place on August 9th at 11:02 A.M. in Nagasaki. When I visit (especially during Obon) I feel like I am giving my respects to all of the lives lost as a result of the A-bomb (around 130,000 people died). But maybe more importantly, by visiting I want to show that I am an advocate of peace, and that I am not afraid to acknowledge the destruction and learn from the personal experiences of bomb survivors.
Unlike Hiroshima, Nagasaki attempted an objective approach. Of course it is almost impossible to achieve this when your city is only one of two in the world destroyed by an atomic bomb, but they were objective considering their fate. Hiroshima tried to question why the bomb had to be dropped on a city, why there had to be a second bomb dropped, why did they drop it against the scientists of the Manhattan project’s wills, why did they choose these specific targets, why weren’t the cities warned prior to the drops,etc. Interestingly Hiroshima made a good point that the choice had personal ties. For instance, one general refused to have a bomb dropped on Kyoto since he spent his honeymoon there. But, Nagasaki left out information like this because arguably that story might not be as concretely true as Hiroshima insists. Instead, Nagasaki focused on personal stories and events, and talked specifically about the stages of the bomb. That is, how hot temperatures rose at certain distances from the hypocenter and how powerful the blast was. Many bottles, roof tiles, and trees showed the bubbling caused by the intense heat. Many stories and personal items filled the museum. Some sections informed museum goers about stages of radiation and showed graphic pictures of skin burned off and keloid scars.
All the pictures of the burn victims almost brought me to tears. Even now when thinking about how many people suffered, upsets me. Perhaps the item that stood out to me the most was a lunch box of a school girl. Displayed under the picture of the girl, this lunch box still had all of the food items intact, but was completely charred. Essentially the lunch box had been preserved like a time capsule and even individual grains of rice could still be seen. Right now I am having a hard time describing how it affected me so deeply. Maybe because I started to think about how unknowingly this school girl sat at her desk thinking about her regular day and how soon (around 11 o’clock) she would finally get some lunch. Of course made this up in my head, but I started thinking about how so many people had no idea what would happen, and how instantaneously some many lives disintegrated. They hadn’t been able to find this girl; the only thing that remained of her on that day was her lunch box with her name engraved on the bottom. It was a piece of her on that day almost perfectly preserved, and a memory that her life had been unknowingly swept away. I hope that explains my jumble of thoughts. I find it so difficult to describe, and so I encourage anyone who gets a chance to visit the Nagasaki A-bomb museum to truly make an effort to understand that peace is necessary so that no A-bomb will be dropped again.
On a lighter note, Obon exceeded my expectations. The atmosphere and excitement truly affected everyone around the festival. All the roads downtown had been shut down for the parade of boats, and in some spots the only lights came from the lanterns on the boats themselves. Tons of people lined the street on both sides and tons of fireworks exploded in the middle of the street. I have never seen as much litter in Japan until the night of Obon. Since people discarded firework box where ever the street was barely visible under the mounds of trash. So strange to see in Japan, but it made it all the more exciting and different than any other Japan experience I have had. Instead of me explaining forever what the floats looked like, look at the pictures for youself (the link is on an older post). Experiencing Obon in Nagasaki was worth it, even though it was expensive!
Planning my trip back didn’t go too well. I had just enough, again, to make it back to Shinkamigoto on the fast boat. Bad decision. Unfortunately the fast boat is not only expensive, but pretty far from my house. I had the idea that I could catch a bus from Taonora (where the boat lands in Shinkamigoto) regardless of the fact that I didn’t look up the schedule. Also, I wore jeans that day – really bad decision in this heat – because someone told me I would need jeans to protect myself from the ground fireworks at Obon. To my disadvantage on this exceptionally hot day, they were my only set of clean clothes. Since I thought I could take a bus back home, wearing jeans didn’t seem too stupid. But, it was. Let me tell you, skinny jeans in humid heat makes for a miserable 1.5 mile hike while carrying duffle bags.
Upon arriving in Taonora I was informed that the last bus of the day just departed ten minutes ago. What to do? Not having enough money for a taxi, I opted to walk in my jeans on this hot hot day all the way back to my house. Carrying my bags I set off in the direction – I hoped – was Arikawa. Thankfully it was, but it took me a good hour and ten minutes to finally reach my destination! And, another problem I faced was figuring out how to get to Nice Buddy later that night for a BBQ they invited me to. I didn’t have anyone’s number from Nice Buddy because I had just gotten my phone on Thursday. But fate was on my side! Thankfully after all my misfortunes of the day, I ran into Natsun – one of the owner of Nice Buddy – on the walk home. If I hadn’t I think I would have collapsed on my bed and not been able to make it all the way to the BBQ. After exchanging numbers and explaining my situation she offered a ride later in the day. Halleluiah!
I won’t go into details of the BBQ, but instead focus on what’s interesting. I ate sheep, goat, sea snail, and beef. Funny, but true, goat kinda tastes like how they smell. Taste wise, I haven’t made up my mind whether I actually liked it or not. And raw goat meat tasted better than when cooked. At first I thought they were playing a trick on my and trying to get me to eat a raw meat that I shouldn’t. So I had them eat the raw goat first. They did, so I did. And it was delicious! Raw goat is tasty, but raw sea snail not so much. I happened to eat some raw sea snail sashimi in Nagasaki. It looked like the multicolored gizzards of a chicken with boogers all over it, and I think it tasted pretty much how it looked. And it was so incredibly slimly I had a hard time handling it with my chopstick. Instead of gracefully placing it in my mouth, I had to scoop it in. In my mouth the booger sack burst open and a flood of extremely mushy cream of wheat textured goo poured out. Delicious. Joking, because seriously it was nasty. Cooked sea snail actually tastes good, but it is just one of those things that shouldn’t be eaten raw. So adding goat and sea snail onto the list of sashimi, I have also added cooked sheep (I have eaten lamb, but full grown is different) onto my new foods list. I really like.
*Hahaha, there is a break between meetings and people started taking about how hot it is, and when the heat will end.
Sheep in Japanese is pronounced jingesukan, which sounds an awful lot like Ghengis Khan the Mongol conqueror. So they kept talking about how we were going to eat Ghengis Khan, and I didn’t understand. And I kept asking why they said we were eating a Mongol. It took forever to explain what I meant, but towards the end of the night everyone started calling the sheep monguru-jin (Mongolian person).
I really like the whole Nice Buddy family! Techan and Natsun have three kids: two girls and one boy. And the girls are interested in talking to Robin and me. I think they want to learn English from us, and I figure that my free English lessons are in exchange for the extra benefits (like dinner) that Nice Buddy has given me. The little boy (8 years old) keeps showing me all the bugs he catches. Here in Japan little boys catch a certain type of beetle. The more you have the cooler you are. Techan keeps calling his soon “hero” because he has so many bugs, and explained that he is a really manly cool little boy for catching these beetles (they are not dangerous) and so they call him a hero for it. I think that they look really nasty, but I am not a huge fan of bugs in general. But, every time I go to Nice Buddy the little boy shows me his beetle collection because he keeps them in a tank like pets. Last time he showed me almost all of the bugs in one of the terrariums had died, and he didn’t seem too upset. I told him all had died, but he assured me that there were live ones at the bottom of the sod. So he dug through the layers of dead beetles and moist sod to prove that in fact live beetles did escape death. Gross.
After my dive on Monday night, Nastun served me dinner at Nice Buddy. I sat there for a good while trying to explain the pronunciation difference between frog and flag. When it comes to pronunciation my linguistic training comes as an advantage.
*Best time ever at work. I went out of the teacher’s lounge to go to the bathroom, and what do I hear but Thriller playing the background. So I went over to investigate and almost all of the third year students were practicing the dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller video! So cool to see all of the students doing this dance. They told me that they are practicing for sports day where they are all going to perform the dance together. Some taught me some of the moves, and I started to join in and practice with them. So much fun!
I’ll write about meeting the mayor tomorrow. I have already written so much!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Kurapu Kurapu
I won't be able to blog about the weekend until tomorrow :( I am so exhausted from everything!! There seems to be no time in the day anymore.
I wanted to post something before I went to sleep. It's more like my time to vent than talking about events.
No, I am not going to talk badly about Japanese people, but instead I am going to complain about my toilet situation. At first I was overjoyed to know that I had a western style toilet. "Thank you, there is a god," I thought as I peered inside and walked away. - side note: traditional Japanese toilets are squat toilets and you can't exactly relax with a magazine - To give you an idea of the bathroom (or maybe just toilet room is better): it is a closet sized space which includes the western appearing toilet and a small strange sink. I noticed something else that was very strange, a gun looking water sprayer hung next to the toilet. From my experience with the highly technologically advanced toilets in Tokyo, I though maybe it was a bidet. I was so wrong.
So, overwhelmed by my sense of good fortune I missed the horrible smell even though I examined the strange gun. But, I sure noticed it the first time I went into the bathroom. I had to hurry to finish my business and bolt out of there. When I flushed the familiar swirl and rush of water were replaced by the opening of a flap in the bottom of the bowl and a stream of water. Interesting, maybe the toilets flush differently here in Arikawa? No.
My toilet as I have come to realize is just a glorified outhouse attached to my house. The flap separates the septic tank sitting just below my bathroom from the rest of the house. Even though my predecessor told me I had a septic tank bill I didn't think that it would be a flap away from my house.
The most startling aspect of the flap happens to be the sounds it makes: the clap. If you happen to have good aim you can measure your craps in claps. By this I mean, the flap can't hold much weight. What you do hits the flap, the flap opens, flaps back up and makes a clapping noise. The first time this happened I was really surprised and was afraid that something was crawling through the flap. Not so, just my own doing. I am so sorry that I am being so graphic, but I just need to vent about my kurapu kurapu.
Kurapu kurapu you ask? Well sound it out. Ku-ra-pu. Huh, kinda like "crap". But if you were Japanese it would also sound like "clap" - Japanese can't make the /r/ /l/ distinction. Hence: kurapu kurapu. A play on words in Japanese to mean both crap and clap, and since you can measure your craps in claps, this is the new name of my toilet.
Basically I have an outhouse for a toilet, which explains why I can't kill the smell. And don't get my started about the really hot humid days here. No matter how much I try to make it smell like lavender it doesn't work. I have two general air fresheners, and toilet attachment, a freshener to put in the sink, and the spray. Nothing works for more than an hour! It's best just to avoid the bathroom during the lunch hours. In the beginning I blamed the smell on Joe, but now I understand that nothing can be done.
And I figured out the purpose of the spray gun. The bowl doesn't fill up with water after flushing. Adding to this problem, is the fact that the water pressure when flushing doesn't do very much. Every time that you can't aim directly on the flap, the gun assists in removing anything you don't want stinking up your bathroom. So this makes a separate problem. Spraying away unwanted visuals means that you have to be careful. Sprayer beware because you might splash some of what you clean onto your legs. Gross.
I think I would prefer an outhouse to the kurapu kurapu. Venting complete.
I wanted to post something before I went to sleep. It's more like my time to vent than talking about events.
No, I am not going to talk badly about Japanese people, but instead I am going to complain about my toilet situation. At first I was overjoyed to know that I had a western style toilet. "Thank you, there is a god," I thought as I peered inside and walked away. - side note: traditional Japanese toilets are squat toilets and you can't exactly relax with a magazine - To give you an idea of the bathroom (or maybe just toilet room is better): it is a closet sized space which includes the western appearing toilet and a small strange sink. I noticed something else that was very strange, a gun looking water sprayer hung next to the toilet. From my experience with the highly technologically advanced toilets in Tokyo, I though maybe it was a bidet. I was so wrong.
So, overwhelmed by my sense of good fortune I missed the horrible smell even though I examined the strange gun. But, I sure noticed it the first time I went into the bathroom. I had to hurry to finish my business and bolt out of there. When I flushed the familiar swirl and rush of water were replaced by the opening of a flap in the bottom of the bowl and a stream of water. Interesting, maybe the toilets flush differently here in Arikawa? No.
My toilet as I have come to realize is just a glorified outhouse attached to my house. The flap separates the septic tank sitting just below my bathroom from the rest of the house. Even though my predecessor told me I had a septic tank bill I didn't think that it would be a flap away from my house.
The most startling aspect of the flap happens to be the sounds it makes: the clap. If you happen to have good aim you can measure your craps in claps. By this I mean, the flap can't hold much weight. What you do hits the flap, the flap opens, flaps back up and makes a clapping noise. The first time this happened I was really surprised and was afraid that something was crawling through the flap. Not so, just my own doing. I am so sorry that I am being so graphic, but I just need to vent about my kurapu kurapu.
Kurapu kurapu you ask? Well sound it out. Ku-ra-pu. Huh, kinda like "crap". But if you were Japanese it would also sound like "clap" - Japanese can't make the /r/ /l/ distinction. Hence: kurapu kurapu. A play on words in Japanese to mean both crap and clap, and since you can measure your craps in claps, this is the new name of my toilet.
Basically I have an outhouse for a toilet, which explains why I can't kill the smell. And don't get my started about the really hot humid days here. No matter how much I try to make it smell like lavender it doesn't work. I have two general air fresheners, and toilet attachment, a freshener to put in the sink, and the spray. Nothing works for more than an hour! It's best just to avoid the bathroom during the lunch hours. In the beginning I blamed the smell on Joe, but now I understand that nothing can be done.
And I figured out the purpose of the spray gun. The bowl doesn't fill up with water after flushing. Adding to this problem, is the fact that the water pressure when flushing doesn't do very much. Every time that you can't aim directly on the flap, the gun assists in removing anything you don't want stinking up your bathroom. So this makes a separate problem. Spraying away unwanted visuals means that you have to be careful. Sprayer beware because you might splash some of what you clean onto your legs. Gross.
I think I would prefer an outhouse to the kurapu kurapu. Venting complete.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Pictures
Finally got the internet up at my house!!!! Crazy, it almost doesn't feel right anymore. Well, I hate to say it, but I am so tired I can't find the strength to write anything. Don't worry I have a lot to say. But...in the mean time, pictures!! I am posting links to picasa and you can view them there. I only made some comments on the pictures from this last weekend, but I will go through all of the pictures in time!
Obon Festival (this weekend)
shinkamigoto
more shinkamigoto
house cleaning (don't judge me, this was when I first got there)
Arrival to Shinkamigoto
Orientation
New ALTs
Peace Day Assembly
Office
Obon Festival (this weekend)
shinkamigoto
more shinkamigoto
house cleaning (don't judge me, this was when I first got there)
Arrival to Shinkamigoto
Orientation
New ALTs
Peace Day Assembly
Office
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
bioluminescent flagellates
Where to begin?!? Making Japanese friends at Nice Buddy has already heightened my experience here in Shinkamigoto. We went on a boat to a festival in a neighboring island (Wakamatsu) to eat yummy food and have a good time.
So far it really hasn’t rained much…until yesterday! Talk about bad timing. All day it constantly rained, but not too hard until we headed down to Nice Buddy, where the rain really started to pour. But, I came prepared with my awesome rain boots (which saved my life yesterday, thank you mom), a rain coat (thank you Jamie), and an umbrella. I decked myself out in rain gear because after living in Houston I know how to deal with the down pours.
At Nice Buddy we (11 people) piled onto the scuba boat and head toward Wakamatsu. And it was a much faster and more direct trip to Wakamatsu by boat than by car. In a car you have to not only scale mountains, but you have to go over a bridge and then wait in traffic and find a place to park. On a boat, you can head straight there (the quickest way from point A to point B is a straight line), park right on the dock without waiting, have a place to eat, and most importantly you have the best view of the fireworks. All in all, I attribute my amazing experience to the people at Nice Buddy and the boat.
Maybe I was over-prepared, but I didn’t regret my decision to wear the boots after we got to the festival. We had to walk through sticky brown mud to buy some BBQ food (they brought their own sushi –BYOS for short – ). Everyone else had flip flops on, which meant they had to carefully look around at the ground where they walked while I walked through the mud without a care in the world (and dry, mud free feet). Looking around, I felt so bad for all of the girls that had gotten ready with their yukata (light cotton Kimono-ish garment). Some girls had just a tiny towel over their heads to protect them from the rain. But the saddest sight was the entertainer on the big stage. Unfortunately his act included juggling and twirling fire. Only several dedicated audience members huddle near the front of the stage and watched as people with umbrellas tried to keep him and his spinning fire baton dry. And their very dedicated attempts at keeping the show alive could not sustain any audience interest. Poor fire thrower.
We left the main festival mud pit to rejoin the nice buddies, where we ate, drank, joked, and laughed while exchanging cultural tid bits. Japanese people have a very hard time pronouncing many English sounds like [f] [b] [v] [l] [r], stops [p,t,k,b] at the end of a word, the [si] combination in words like [sit]. There are many more, but it was funny to hear Natsun-san say “flip flop” because it sounded more like [rep rop] than any close to “flip flop”. And they can’t pronounce “corn dog” very well (especially because they call a corn dog “America dog”) so corn dog either sounds like [coin dog] or [co dog]. Obviously I want to make our friendship deeper than just saying things in English, but at first it is a good way to break the ice and make everyone laugh. Another really good way to impress Japanese people is knowing bits of J-pop (Japanese pop culture). Such words like KY (kuuki yomenai, can’t read the air, hence “awkward”) and maji de ( oh really???) come in handy because they will usually make someone laugh. Knowing about yumei na hito (famous people) and cartoons like oshiri kajiri mushi (butt biting bug) go a long way to make little kids think that you are cool. And then it opens up the conversation to talk about slang in English.
Enough about language, this was my first festival after all so I might as well talk about it. Especially because some weird things happened that I didn’t expect. I didn’t mention it before, but Robin came along. I asked Nishimura-sensei and then they invited her to come along. So, together we walked back to the festival –it had stopped raining – to see why everyone gathered around the stage. We both didn’t have to strain to see the stage (because everyone is so short) so we were immediately surprised to see…Power Rangers??? NO! GOTO RANGERS! On the stage stood several bad guys surrounded by the “puddy” things (if you haven’t seen Power Rangers they are the lowest ranking and easiest to kill henchmen). One puddy was not child appropriate. He stuffed something bigger than a sock down his costume to give an enlarging effect (although funny because so strange) did not seem okay considering the amount of little kids. Sometimes overtly sexual things in Japan are accepted by the mainstream public.
Enough about “big puddy”. I have to say they did a pretty good job reenacting the whole cheesy Power Ranger getup and choreography. Apparently there are only two Goto Rangers, red and blue, but they kicked some monster butt!! Even when Godzilla showed up in the crowd (who awkwardly lumbered around with escorts, and had to be lifted onto the stage), they were able to defeat him and keep the Goto Islands safe. There was lighting and fog effects that make it seem so real! Not really, but it was entertaining!! Alas, the show couldn’t last forever, and so we walked around the festival.
Commonly at the festivals there are fish catching games. You kneel and a trough filled with fish and in one hand you hold a bowl and in the other you have a small net. The goal is to herd a gold fish into the bowl with the net and scoop it up. Breaking super easily, the net isn’t meant to have any weight put on it. Rather you herd a fish slowly until you can quickly scoop with the bowl. Since I have been wanting a fish, I decided this was a perfectly acceptable way of acquire one. After breaking my first two nets, I caught a fish!! The man also gave me a pity fish that really wasn’t that pretty. Mine –the one I caught – is way cuter. So I named my big gold fish Goto Ranger and the little one Busu-chan (it means ugly thing in Japanese). Now I have to make sure I can keep the fishies alive!
Both Robin and I ran into our students from our respective high schools. So we posed in our most Japanese way and took a picture. Running into them was fantastic because I want them to know I get out and around and I am interested in the community events. The only drawback was that they tried to take advantage of me! One student asked for me to pay for their ice cream. I told them I didn’t have any money – which is true – so they asked Nishimura sensei instead. To my surprise Nishimura sensei gave into their request! Maybe this is a common thing for a sensei to buy the students food or something, but I feel weird doing that. They should be bribing me, not the other way around.
By the time I made it back to the boat –Goto Ranger in tow – the fireworks started. The view from the boat was spectacular. I don’t ever remember fireworks being so loud, so it must have been topographical features amplifying the sound. They went on forever. I thought that since it was a small festival the fireworks wouldn’t be very grand, but Japanese take fireworks very seriously and the display truly was beautiful.
But better than the fireworks was the ride back on the boat where probably thousands of the bioluminescent flagellates (Wikipedia it) illuminated the crests of the waves and the surface of the water. I have never seen anything like it. The water had an eerie turquoise glow anywhere the microscopic organisms had been perturbed. So the wake behind the boat glowed. And I can’t even begin to describe the stars (I just have been able to see them clearly again with glasses) because there were millions and millions that we could see. Without the harsh city light I am used to, the sky looked as clear as I can remember it. The night sparkled above and below me in the boat. And to add to the romantic nature of the night, I saw a falling star. I wish I could find the appropriate words to describe just how beautiful the night was. I can only look forward to more beauty in events to come, especially since Natsun told me that you can see the bioluminescent flagellates (plankton) night diving!!
The biggest congregation of the plankton itself was around the dock of Nice Buddy, and so when we got off of the boat we spent a good ten minutes throwing things into the water to make it glow. I can see how sailors must have thought that spirits lurked in the water. Even though I know the explanation, I still couldn’t help feeling that what we saw was not natural and other worldly. I don’t know how long the bioluminescence lasts in these waters, but I am so glad I got to see it!
First festival: success!
Here is a google map of all the places I've been talking about.
So far it really hasn’t rained much…until yesterday! Talk about bad timing. All day it constantly rained, but not too hard until we headed down to Nice Buddy, where the rain really started to pour. But, I came prepared with my awesome rain boots (which saved my life yesterday, thank you mom), a rain coat (thank you Jamie), and an umbrella. I decked myself out in rain gear because after living in Houston I know how to deal with the down pours.
At Nice Buddy we (11 people) piled onto the scuba boat and head toward Wakamatsu. And it was a much faster and more direct trip to Wakamatsu by boat than by car. In a car you have to not only scale mountains, but you have to go over a bridge and then wait in traffic and find a place to park. On a boat, you can head straight there (the quickest way from point A to point B is a straight line), park right on the dock without waiting, have a place to eat, and most importantly you have the best view of the fireworks. All in all, I attribute my amazing experience to the people at Nice Buddy and the boat.
Maybe I was over-prepared, but I didn’t regret my decision to wear the boots after we got to the festival. We had to walk through sticky brown mud to buy some BBQ food (they brought their own sushi –BYOS for short – ). Everyone else had flip flops on, which meant they had to carefully look around at the ground where they walked while I walked through the mud without a care in the world (and dry, mud free feet). Looking around, I felt so bad for all of the girls that had gotten ready with their yukata (light cotton Kimono-ish garment). Some girls had just a tiny towel over their heads to protect them from the rain. But the saddest sight was the entertainer on the big stage. Unfortunately his act included juggling and twirling fire. Only several dedicated audience members huddle near the front of the stage and watched as people with umbrellas tried to keep him and his spinning fire baton dry. And their very dedicated attempts at keeping the show alive could not sustain any audience interest. Poor fire thrower.
We left the main festival mud pit to rejoin the nice buddies, where we ate, drank, joked, and laughed while exchanging cultural tid bits. Japanese people have a very hard time pronouncing many English sounds like [f] [b] [v] [l] [r], stops [p,t,k,b] at the end of a word, the [si] combination in words like [sit]. There are many more, but it was funny to hear Natsun-san say “flip flop” because it sounded more like [rep rop] than any close to “flip flop”. And they can’t pronounce “corn dog” very well (especially because they call a corn dog “America dog”) so corn dog either sounds like [coin dog] or [co dog]. Obviously I want to make our friendship deeper than just saying things in English, but at first it is a good way to break the ice and make everyone laugh. Another really good way to impress Japanese people is knowing bits of J-pop (Japanese pop culture). Such words like KY (kuuki yomenai, can’t read the air, hence “awkward”) and maji de ( oh really???) come in handy because they will usually make someone laugh. Knowing about yumei na hito (famous people) and cartoons like oshiri kajiri mushi (butt biting bug) go a long way to make little kids think that you are cool. And then it opens up the conversation to talk about slang in English.
Enough about language, this was my first festival after all so I might as well talk about it. Especially because some weird things happened that I didn’t expect. I didn’t mention it before, but Robin came along. I asked Nishimura-sensei and then they invited her to come along. So, together we walked back to the festival –it had stopped raining – to see why everyone gathered around the stage. We both didn’t have to strain to see the stage (because everyone is so short) so we were immediately surprised to see…Power Rangers??? NO! GOTO RANGERS! On the stage stood several bad guys surrounded by the “puddy” things (if you haven’t seen Power Rangers they are the lowest ranking and easiest to kill henchmen). One puddy was not child appropriate. He stuffed something bigger than a sock down his costume to give an enlarging effect (although funny because so strange) did not seem okay considering the amount of little kids. Sometimes overtly sexual things in Japan are accepted by the mainstream public.
Enough about “big puddy”. I have to say they did a pretty good job reenacting the whole cheesy Power Ranger getup and choreography. Apparently there are only two Goto Rangers, red and blue, but they kicked some monster butt!! Even when Godzilla showed up in the crowd (who awkwardly lumbered around with escorts, and had to be lifted onto the stage), they were able to defeat him and keep the Goto Islands safe. There was lighting and fog effects that make it seem so real! Not really, but it was entertaining!! Alas, the show couldn’t last forever, and so we walked around the festival.
Commonly at the festivals there are fish catching games. You kneel and a trough filled with fish and in one hand you hold a bowl and in the other you have a small net. The goal is to herd a gold fish into the bowl with the net and scoop it up. Breaking super easily, the net isn’t meant to have any weight put on it. Rather you herd a fish slowly until you can quickly scoop with the bowl. Since I have been wanting a fish, I decided this was a perfectly acceptable way of acquire one. After breaking my first two nets, I caught a fish!! The man also gave me a pity fish that really wasn’t that pretty. Mine –the one I caught – is way cuter. So I named my big gold fish Goto Ranger and the little one Busu-chan (it means ugly thing in Japanese). Now I have to make sure I can keep the fishies alive!
Both Robin and I ran into our students from our respective high schools. So we posed in our most Japanese way and took a picture. Running into them was fantastic because I want them to know I get out and around and I am interested in the community events. The only drawback was that they tried to take advantage of me! One student asked for me to pay for their ice cream. I told them I didn’t have any money – which is true – so they asked Nishimura sensei instead. To my surprise Nishimura sensei gave into their request! Maybe this is a common thing for a sensei to buy the students food or something, but I feel weird doing that. They should be bribing me, not the other way around.
By the time I made it back to the boat –Goto Ranger in tow – the fireworks started. The view from the boat was spectacular. I don’t ever remember fireworks being so loud, so it must have been topographical features amplifying the sound. They went on forever. I thought that since it was a small festival the fireworks wouldn’t be very grand, but Japanese take fireworks very seriously and the display truly was beautiful.
But better than the fireworks was the ride back on the boat where probably thousands of the bioluminescent flagellates (Wikipedia it) illuminated the crests of the waves and the surface of the water. I have never seen anything like it. The water had an eerie turquoise glow anywhere the microscopic organisms had been perturbed. So the wake behind the boat glowed. And I can’t even begin to describe the stars (I just have been able to see them clearly again with glasses) because there were millions and millions that we could see. Without the harsh city light I am used to, the sky looked as clear as I can remember it. The night sparkled above and below me in the boat. And to add to the romantic nature of the night, I saw a falling star. I wish I could find the appropriate words to describe just how beautiful the night was. I can only look forward to more beauty in events to come, especially since Natsun told me that you can see the bioluminescent flagellates (plankton) night diving!!
The biggest congregation of the plankton itself was around the dock of Nice Buddy, and so when we got off of the boat we spent a good ten minutes throwing things into the water to make it glow. I can see how sailors must have thought that spirits lurked in the water. Even though I know the explanation, I still couldn’t help feeling that what we saw was not natural and other worldly. I don’t know how long the bioluminescence lasts in these waters, but I am so glad I got to see it!
First festival: success!
Here is a google map of all the places I've been talking about.
my first dive!
I had no clue what to expect from my first dive, but it was fantastic! They completely suited me up from head to toe in scuba gear. Thankfully, the wetsuit fit –just barely - because I am definitely not Japanese sized. So I had a wetsuit, boots, gloves, the mask, flippers, weights, and the tank. Everything on felt so strange, and it definitely wasn’t my most attractive moment.
Techan (the guy giving me the lesson) doesn’t really speak English, so my first lesson was in broken Japanese. There are two main things he taught me: 1. When water gets in your mask push on the top and blow as hard as you can with your nose to expel the water, and 2. When your oxygen mask gets yanked out in the water blow really hard on it before breathing in again. Simple enough. And after making sure I could do both of those things, we jumped off of the side of the dock and into the water. Breathing from the tank felt like I was sucking air through a straw. And my mouth got surprisingly dry toward the end of my twenty minute dive.
Don’t worry, Techan made sure to hold my hand and watch me closely to make sure I had my balance (which is surprisingly difficult). If he left me he indicated to grab hold of a rock or pole while he pointed something out. Since we stayed at the dock I thought that I wouldn’t see any interesting sea life, but there was so much to see right there! Clownfish, seahorses, colorful shrimp, schools of small silver fish, and an occasional big fish (foot long). Well I can’t say that I had a favorite part to my dive, but I got to hold a seahorse!
Techan brought one over to me and placed it in my hands, and it grabbed onto my finger with its tail. Very strange creatures, but so fascinating! And to gather more fish, Techan pounded on a rock with a silver rod which attracted about twenty fishes. Afterwards he told me the pounding breaks off food particles that the fish feed on. Techan had me swirl my finger through sea anemones which would gently recoil and move away from my hand, and the clownfish would get in on the fun and follow our hands through the anemone. Overall I had such a great time even though we didn’t go anywhere. And just before the end of the dive, we picked up oysters from the sea floor to take up with us.
I had a slight inclination of the oyster’s contents, but it was confirmed when Techan shucked them open and had me dig for the contents inside of the oyster’s body. So I reached with my thumb and index finger slowly dipping them into the doughy texture of the first oyster and pulled out a perfectly shaped off-white colored pearl. So beautiful. I couldn’t believe that he not only let me have the pearl from the first oyster, but from the second one as well. And although the second has black raised areas of imperfection, it is equally as beautiful as the first. Both mean so much to me because I have a physical memory not only of my first dive, but of Shinkamigoto for as long as I don’t lose them. My plan is to make them into a necklace or into earrings.
I can’t imagine all the other amazing things that I will encounter. As the diving manual (in Japanese) reads, “If it is your first time scuba diving under the water, you will surely become hooked.” I have to agree. And I wish that I could translate more of this manual which I am supposed to have read, but it so difficult to translate. They are going to give me the English manual that one of the last JETs ordered so that I am able to read and study the basics of scuba diving. But for now the book has been helpful for practicing my Japanese.
Tonight I am off to go on a cruise around a bay with the members of Nice Buddy where we will eat lots of sushi and drink beer and watch the fireworks. I have to say that sushi is my favorite food here on the island!
Techan (the guy giving me the lesson) doesn’t really speak English, so my first lesson was in broken Japanese. There are two main things he taught me: 1. When water gets in your mask push on the top and blow as hard as you can with your nose to expel the water, and 2. When your oxygen mask gets yanked out in the water blow really hard on it before breathing in again. Simple enough. And after making sure I could do both of those things, we jumped off of the side of the dock and into the water. Breathing from the tank felt like I was sucking air through a straw. And my mouth got surprisingly dry toward the end of my twenty minute dive.
Don’t worry, Techan made sure to hold my hand and watch me closely to make sure I had my balance (which is surprisingly difficult). If he left me he indicated to grab hold of a rock or pole while he pointed something out. Since we stayed at the dock I thought that I wouldn’t see any interesting sea life, but there was so much to see right there! Clownfish, seahorses, colorful shrimp, schools of small silver fish, and an occasional big fish (foot long). Well I can’t say that I had a favorite part to my dive, but I got to hold a seahorse!
Techan brought one over to me and placed it in my hands, and it grabbed onto my finger with its tail. Very strange creatures, but so fascinating! And to gather more fish, Techan pounded on a rock with a silver rod which attracted about twenty fishes. Afterwards he told me the pounding breaks off food particles that the fish feed on. Techan had me swirl my finger through sea anemones which would gently recoil and move away from my hand, and the clownfish would get in on the fun and follow our hands through the anemone. Overall I had such a great time even though we didn’t go anywhere. And just before the end of the dive, we picked up oysters from the sea floor to take up with us.
I had a slight inclination of the oyster’s contents, but it was confirmed when Techan shucked them open and had me dig for the contents inside of the oyster’s body. So I reached with my thumb and index finger slowly dipping them into the doughy texture of the first oyster and pulled out a perfectly shaped off-white colored pearl. So beautiful. I couldn’t believe that he not only let me have the pearl from the first oyster, but from the second one as well. And although the second has black raised areas of imperfection, it is equally as beautiful as the first. Both mean so much to me because I have a physical memory not only of my first dive, but of Shinkamigoto for as long as I don’t lose them. My plan is to make them into a necklace or into earrings.
I can’t imagine all the other amazing things that I will encounter. As the diving manual (in Japanese) reads, “If it is your first time scuba diving under the water, you will surely become hooked.” I have to agree. And I wish that I could translate more of this manual which I am supposed to have read, but it so difficult to translate. They are going to give me the English manual that one of the last JETs ordered so that I am able to read and study the basics of scuba diving. But for now the book has been helpful for practicing my Japanese.
Tonight I am off to go on a cruise around a bay with the members of Nice Buddy where we will eat lots of sushi and drink beer and watch the fireworks. I have to say that sushi is my favorite food here on the island!
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